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The labs' attorney Cameron Fox said
Coppedge was a stubborn and disconnected employee who decided not to
heed warnings to get additional training, even when it became clear the
Cassini mission would be downsized and computer specialist positions
eliminated.

He also claimed Coppedge often was
confrontational and insensitive to customers and colleagues, who had
complained about his behaviour and his advocacy of intelligent design.

'What happened to David Coppedge —
really what David Coppedge did to himself — had nothing to do with
intelligent design or religion but with his own stubbornness,' said Fox.

Experienced: Coppedge worked as a 'team lead' on the Cassini mission exploring Saturn and its many moons before being demoted and sacked

William Becker, Coppedge's attorney, argued his client was sacked because he advocated for intelligent design in
the workplace, handed out DVDs on the theory and argued with a colleague
about Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in California.

Becker claimed that a supervisor told
Coppedge to 'stop pushing your religion,' and that his client was
retaliated against for disputing a written warning and filing a lawsuit
against the lab.

His main duties at JPL were to maintain computer networks and troubleshoot technical problems for the mission.

In 2000, he was named 'team lead', serving as a liaison between technicians and managers for nearly a decade before being demoted in 2009. He was stripped of his title and responsibilities but his salary stayed the same.

Coppedge filed suit in 2010 and then was sacked the next year as part of large cutbacks.

NASA: The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California has landed robotic explorers on the surface of Mars and sent probes to outer planets

Coppedge said he believes his support
for a state ballot measure that sought to define marriage as limited to
heterosexual couples and his request to rename the annual holiday party a
'Christmas party' were factors in his demotion and sacking.

'David had this reputation for being a
Christian, for being a practising one. He did not go around
evangelising or proselytising,' Becker said at the start of the case.

'But if he found out that someone was a Christian he would say, "Oh that's interesting, what denomination are you?"

'He's not apologising for who he is. He's an evangelical Christian.'

The trial was followed closely by intelligent design adherents who believe life is too complex to come from evolution alone.

They distinguish themselves from creationists by not connecting their beliefs to the Bible specifically.

The Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian civil rights group, and the Discovery Institute, a proponent of intelligent design, both supported Coppedge's case.

Space agency: Coppedge began working for JPL as a contractor in 1996 and was hired in 2003

'There is basically a war on anyone
who dissents from Darwin and we've seen that for several years,' said
John West, associate director of Center for Science and Culture at the
Seattle-based Discovery Institute.

'This is free speech, freedom of conscience 101.'

Becker said the one-paragraph tentative ruling should not be seen as a referendum on the theory of intelligent design.

'It does not specify the court's
reasoning and it would be foolhardy to discern from its general language
that the court had anything to say about the validity of intelligent
design as a scientific theory or as a religious belief,' Becker said.

'We don't believe it was about
religious belief, but David's co-workers perceived it as one and that's
equally offensive under the law.'

Coppedge is active in the intelligent
design sphere and runs a website that interprets scientific discoveries
through the lens of intelligent design.

His father wrote an anti-evolution book and founded a Christian outreach group.

Coppedge also is a board member for
Illustra Media, a company that produces video documentaries examining
the scientific evidence for intelligent design.

The company produces the videos that he was distributing to co-workers.